Hello everyone well this Saturday I finished up my webstie: veganbodytransformation.com and started my cut. I"m looking to get pretty lean first, then bulk up. I am sitting at around 20% body fat, 5 10" and 170lbs. I'm going to be doing a lot of cardio and probably putting in what I eat. Thought this website would be a cool place to log my progress.

Saturday 8/25/2012 - Monday 8/27/12

Workout: Stationary Bike 1hr. & 6 min. at 6% climb-For Saturdays workout I did something I like doing a lot haha, cycling. But not cycling on a regular bike, a stationary bike. Cycling burns a great deal of calories and is a great cardio excercise I like to do, so I'll probably be doing a lot of that.

Diet: For the past couple days I haven't been able to get all the calories I'd like to be getting in on account of college and work but have been trying to stick to:

Morning: Oatmeal and Fruit (maybe)Afternoon Meal 1: Fruit or something vegan I can get my hands on at work or at the house. I have been eating a lot of strawberries and bananas lately. Afternoon Meal 2: Same as the first. Dinner: I usually do some kind of Hispanic dish like burritos or something for dinner.

It's pretty apparent that I need to get the diet straightened back out (college starting kinda through me off).

Hope I'm doing this right haha, glad to post here and be able to talk with some cool vegan folks.

+TODAY’S WEIGHT (8/28): 167 lbs.So this morning I wake to the sound of thunder, the sound of the heavens breaking open to release a down pore unlike the coast has seen in years….. okay maybe not “quite” that dramatic, okay maybe not like that AT ALL.

I woke up this morning expecting something like above (I’m a fan of hardcore weather), but was met with another sunny day in Florida. I would have liked to see some wind and rain, but hey can’t complain about a nice mellow day (so far).

As this is my second day recording my journey along the veggie path, I figure I might call the start of my transformation the day I went vegan. So just to bring everyone up to date, this Saturday will be a month of veganism, and then last Saturday was when I began my cardio, and trying to lose body fat.Today’s Exercise:

After waking to some mellow weather I dropped my Girlfriend off at work, and came back home to go for my ride.

I’m a fan of cycling as I might of said before, and will probably do this exercise the most (both on a real bike, and a stationary bike I picked up from sears a year ago that was price reduced $200 ).

My distance today was about 3 – 4 miles, and consisted of me riding to the beach, watching the waves while I ate a couple bananas, and then biking home and around the block twice.

Near the end of the day I will most likely go on another ride, or possibly take a walk.

Diet for the day:

So today I bought some bananas and one of the Odwalla “mango tango” drinks (SO DELICICIOUS). This was my breakfast and will be my snack throughout the day until I go to work (Sams) and buy some more food.

Alright well day 5 is officially coming to a close and I just have one thing to say about it… GRAPES.Today I bought a ton of grapes, and, ate a lot of grapes. So don’t be surprised when looking in the “diet for the day” section and seeing 1lb. of grapes. The day as a whole went well, I didn’t fit a workout session in today, but I did buy some more fruit and enjoyed that (hence the grapes).If anyone is wondering how I am setting up the calorie intake for the day I have a philosophy that I’ve heard many a time to do weight loss. Basically I establish a caloric minimum (an amount of calories I need to ingest in order to attain weight loss, by trying out different amount of calories per day) and then try to eat that amount every day, while also combining my diet with exercise. A combination of both really aids your weight loss in my opinion and seems to be working for me. Diet for the Day Breakfast: -Cheerios (2 cups) -Silk Milk (1cup)Snacking: -Whole Wheat Bun -Skippy Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter (1 tbsp.) -Apricot Jam (1tbsp.) -Triscuits (around 5-7 chips) Dinner: -Grapes (1 AWESOME Pound… or more)Calories: 1103Protein: 23.1 gramsDietary Notes: Today was filled with a lot of grains; I’ve heard some bad and good things about grain and wanted to describe how a “grain” day made me feel. To be honest I felt fine, no huge jolts of energy or any real tired feeling, “mellow.” I also had quite a lot of sleep though (very important) and wasn’t able to fit a lot of eating in today, hence not enough calories

Cool, I just checked out your website. Glad to see you got it up and running and also stoked you decided to start recording your progress with us in the forum too. I think will all this documenting it will help you hold yourself accountable and be successful with your goals. I also think it will help you get a lot of exposure and meet some great new people along the way.

Yea me too haha, I definitally noticed that by posting my day to day I am more consientious of my decisions. I hope to meet a lot of great new people as well man, I tried making my documenting as thurough as I could so that if the blog does come to the attention of someone "great" my credibility will be far better. Thanks for the comment.

As day 6 came to a close I reflected on my delicious Moe’s meal (western grill type of place that has a “tofu” option for every menu item: D), and my veggie burger than my Girlfriend made so fantastically well (yes they can be delicious… always better homemade though).

Day 6 was filled with much larger meals than I usually have and got me to a higher calorie count then what I’ve had lately, resulting in some weight gain . But fear not I am doing just fine, and still have hopes to lose around 5lbs. on my first week.

Diet for the Day:

Breakfast:

-Grapes (1lb. or so)

Grazing:

-Strawberries (3 cups)

Moe’s:

-Rice (1.5 cups)

-Corn salsa stuff (1/2 cup of corn to about 4tbsp. of salsa)

-Black Beans (1 cup or a little less)

-Tofu (1/2 cup)

-Lettuce (2 cups)

Dinner:

-Boca Burger (1 patty)

-Sourdough Bread (2 slices)

-Mustard & Ketchup (1tbsp. each)

-Dill Pickles (4 slices)

Thoughts: Got a little more calories today than I was planning on, not a big deal as long as its a seldom occurrence. Enjoying this process and losing weight, I dropped quite a bit very quickly and now have got to include more of my workouts in the week to continue my journey.

What’s up everyone out there in internet land, day seven is a wrap and thus the first week of my body transformation comes to an end.

Looking back on this week I remember how great of an idea it was of me to put “I’m not perfect” in the first video I made for this site. My caloric intake, protein intake, and various other dietary needs have been a little too spastic. I’ve been trying to get in about 1800-2000 calories a day, and have a few times, but need to tighten up a tad on the next week ahead. I’ve tried to maintain about 60g of protein a day, I believe this to be a good number to strive for, and have gotten that for the most part.

Diet for the Day:

Breakfast:

-Banana (1 medium sized banana)

Grazing:

-Fanta (1 can)

-Strawberries (2 cups)

-Taco Bell Beans (1 cup)

-Lettuce (1 cup)

-Rice (1/2 cup)

-Guacamole (1 tbsp.)

Dinner:

-Apple (1 apple)

-Taco Bell Beans (1 cup)

-Lettuce (1 cup)

-Rice (1/2 cup)

-Guacamole (1 tbsp.)

Calorie: 1242 (too low)

Protein: 33g (too low)

Exercise for the Day:

+38 minutes on stationary bike

-414calories

Thoughts: SO as I go on to week two I want to keep in mind GETTING enough calories and so on, as well as putting in more cardio days. If you’ve ever heard of Low Fat High Carb vegan, I’m kind of following a diet like that, but obviously not to a tee.

Excited about next week and what is to come. I wanted to touch ground on one topic that I’ve been getting a lot of grief over, protein.

I know so many people think the 1g/lb. of body weight rule is the way to go, but I really don’t. Just being honest here.

I respect everyone’s ideas on protein needs and how much is enough, but I kind of want to prove the protein myth wrong. Obviously by getting the “lean body” I’d like to have first, people will say “your skinny, get protein!” but maybe in the bulking faze I’ll here otherwise.

Also, when I say lean, I mean lean. I want to test out both sides of the spectrum. The runner’s body that is lean with endurance capabilities and a low body fat %; as well as a bulkier version of me.

So far I’ve realized that I need to work really hard to eat enough calories for the day, as well as get all my food necessities down. I started this whole shindig with the idea of I’ll work out and do the vegan deal, and see how that works.

But then I thought hmm, maybe I could split it up over two periods (a cut, and a bulk). Well NOW I’m thinking I might just revert to my previous plans and do the whole shebang in one sitting.

My current plans are dominated by cardio, and lack any lifting. I’ve heard a lot of advice lately to put more lifting into my program, so maybe I shall. I think it’s safe to say at this point that I need to just get my diet worked out, and then start to incorporate weights.

I would still like to get down to around 155 or so before changing things up, and CERTAINLY have my diet in check. I need to get the calories as well as protein and everything down first and set up my eating throughout the day to be something like this:

Breakfast: Smoothie, Cereal and fruit, or just SOMETHING. I know I’m pressed for time on most days with College and work, but you can always fit a meal in somewhere.

Grazing: Been doing this pretty well to be honest, snacking on a great deal of fruit.

Dinner: Dinners need to be more lettuce ridden. When I think about buying a lot of greens I see $$$, but maybe the fact that I’m extremely money conscious has something to do with it.

Diet for the Day:

Breakfast:

-Skippy Peanut Butter (1tbsp.)

-Apricot Jam (1tbsp.)

-Sourdough Bread (2 slices)

Grazing:

-Boca Burger (1 patty)

-Lettuce (1 cup)

-Dill Pickles (3 small pickles)

-Sourdough Bread (2 slices)

Dinner:

-Grapes (3 pounds spread across a couple hours while at work and once I got home)

Calories: 1913

Protein: 58.6g

Thoughts: I can definitely see me starting to shift thoughts about not lifting at this time. I think maybe here in the next week or so I’ll start incorporating more lifting. It’s been a few months since I went to the gym so it should be a blast .

Today we have a twofer, two for the price of one, whatever you want to call it it’s TWO days in one post. I thought that I would combine the posts because they are polar opposites, and have resulted in bringing me closer to my diet goals.

So if you’ve been reading along with me on my journey you will have noticed that I’ve been trying to get enough calories, protein, and so on. Well today it seems that I am finally getting there (or at least hinting at what’s to come).

My ideal day would be as follows:

Breakfast:

Smoothie of some kind, cereal with fruit, or just fruit

Grazing:

Fruit all day long, maybe a veggie burger on occasion, maybe throw in a salad or wrap as well

Great progress! I'm trying to lose fat too and struggle with the calories...I'm very short and kinda small (5"2, 105 lbs) so if I want to lose fat I have to stick to 1100 cal a day... + of corse, cardio, and some lifting...the lifting is not heavy though

I shoulkd do like you and post what I eat...it would help me with the discipline...

Haha thanks for the post, glad to see the thread did some good out there. Yea totally post your food up, It's certainly helped me out a lot. I started pretty shaky but have now got some good fundamentals in line. I'm gunna put up my Wednesday post now, it's been my best by far.

Alright well I said that on Wednesday I would do “exactly” what I’ve been planning to do, and I did just about that. I had the fruits, the salads, the workout, pretty much everything I wanted to accomplish.

I’m writing this on a Thursday and the only thing I’ll be adding to what I did on Wednesday is some Sun Warrior Protein. It’s a mix of hemp, pea, rice, and various other protein sources for better assimilation and a great amino acid profile (it's in the store on my site, recommend it because "I" have used it before, and am using it again).

Beginning Weight: 170ishCurrent Weight: 163-166So it’s been a while since I posted an update, busy with a whole lot of things as well as trying to get the diet and fitness in order. Last week I fit in three days at the gym and as of today I will have had a BETTER four day week. Tuesday I hit chest, Wednesday I did back and shoulders, Thursday was arms day, and then today will be Legs. I hadn’t done legs in months so last week’s “Leg Day” left me limping for days.The food has been pretty scattered to be honest, still vegan, still Sun Warrior Protein and other veggie-friendly protein sources; but not a set schedule of breakfasts or anything like that. It’s funny to think that at one point in my life I ate Hamburgers and french-fries regularly, and now I feel unhealthy when I have a flour tortilla. Eating vegan has pretty much ridden my diet of any “seriously” unhealthy products… well that’s the point isn’t it. Weight loss hasn’t moved from the 163-166 range for a while now, undoubtedly from the lack of food tracking. Overall I’m enjoying the workouts, still eating clean, and hope to begin “tracking” everything more thoroughly again. Thanks for checking in on my weight loss, take it easy.